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Animal Farm Rhetorical Analysis

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George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm is a satirical allegory of the main events of the Russian Revolution and the rise of Joseph Stalin’s totalitarian regime in the 1930s. The novel tells the story of farm animals that rebel against and defeat their exploitative human owner, Mr Jones, only to face oppression once again, this time due to the tyrannical totalitarian leadership of a pig named Napoleon. Through Napoleon, Orwell explores how revolutionary leaders can create and maintain power by invoking fear, restricting education, and utilising corruption. Firstly, Orwell utilises the character of Napoleon to explore how leaders can create and maintain power by invoking fear. Throughout the novel, the pigs employ Jones as a symbol of oppression …show more content…

By invoking the memory of how oppressive Jones was, the pigs instil fear in the animals, thus making them believe that any dissent or disobedience will lead to a return to the conditions they previously endured. Through the character of Napoleon, Orwell demonstrates how fear can be a powerful tool in controlling and manipulating individuals, consequently allowing leaders to create power. Furthermore, in Chapter 7, multiple animals confess to rebelling against the farm, which resulted in them being ‘slain on the spot.’ Napoleon uses these public executions to serve as examples for the other animals, in an attempt to silence dissent and prevent the animals from voicing any rebellious ideas. This is a historical …show more content…

For example, in Chapter 7, a strong horse named Boxer questioned the removal of a pig named Snowball, one of the former leaders of Animal Farm. Due to this, Napoleon’s guard dogs attack Boxer. Boxer defeated them with ease and then ‘looked at Napoleon to know whether he should crush the dog. sharply ordered Boxer to let the dog go, where Boxer lifted his hoof’. From both this quote and the previous context throughout the novel, the reader can notice that Boxer has the strength to fight back against the totalitarian leadership and create violence. However, he doesn’t do so, as he can’t see past his blind loyalty towards Napoleon. Thus, Boxer’s strength is ironic, as loyalty propaganda has brainwashed him. Through the character of Napoleon, Orwell explores the idea of how restricting education for the masses leads to them being unable to identify the real enemy. Moreover, further along in the same chapter, Orwell uses the following quote to discuss the thoughts of Clover, another horse in the novel: ‘If she could have spoken her thoughts. this was not what they had aimed at when they had set themselves to work for the overthrow of the human race.’ By using the phrase ‘If she could have spoken her thoughts’, Orwell demonstrates how Napoleon maintains his power through the use of deprivation of language, as well as how restricting education is

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